Please Allow Me to (Re)Introduce Ourselves

And Now, Your Starting Lineup

I dimly remember my high school French — I’m not sure if I even passed the second year I took — but I do recall memorizing one of those famous Gallic adages that we pretentious English speakers like to drop into our conversation now and again to make ourselves sound educated. I have used it many times to impress dates and potential business partners: La plus ca change, la plus c'est les vaches — “The more things change, the more they stay the cows.” The saying has its roots in the Greek tale of Sisyphus, who would spend all day pushing a boulder uphill only to have it transform into a giant amorous heifer and chase him back down again. Attempting great change can be like that: You wait for the cheers, but all you hear is a lot of mooing.

At Baseball Prospectus, we fear cows far less than we do complacency, which is why we’re making some changes for 2011. First, if you hadn’t already heard, we have engaged a new editor-in-chief (John Perrotto remains with us, having stepped down to concentrate on his writing). This new fellow is so clever, so wise, so wonderf — I can’t go on: It’s me, and very nice of you to say all those things. After a seven-year apprenticeship on the BP annual, I have been given the honor of supervising the next stage in the development of our website. I’ll have a lot more to say about that as things progress over the next few weeks, but for now, suffice it to say that I do swear that I will faithfully execute this office and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the high standard of analysis and insight you have come to expect from us over the 16 years of our existence. I will also be writing a new thrice-weekly column, “The BP Daily Broadside,” which will see me take on the top news stories of the day.

As you’ve already seen, R.J. Anderson, formerly of Fangraphs, will be pitching in on a variety of topics, including transactions and roster management.

If you follow our ever-growing fantasy content, you’ve likely noted that we’ve been joined by Jason Collette, who brings his 10 years’ experience writing about fantasy for sites like RotoJunkie and Fanball.

And because we can’t bring in every great baseball writer at once, we’re beginning a new weekly series called Baseball ProGUESTus, featuring opinion and analysis by the best and brightest writers and thinkers from the baseball world outside BP.

This is just a sampling of the changes we have coming up over the next few months. There will be new stats reports, a new interface for the site, and much more that we’re working on for later in the spring. I can tell you that as we move forward into spring training and the regular season, you will see faster-paced coverage from us than you have before, with multiple updates each day bringing fresh looks at the day’s events.

Long before I joined BP, I was a reader, and it was an honor for me when I was asked to join the team back in 2003. I loved the enlightened, aggressive tone that our writers took, the way that they broke down everything and took none of the game’s received wisdom for granted. I’ve tried very hard to uphold that standard as I’ve shepherded various BP projects over the years, and I see a major part of my job as inculcating that same pride in what this site stands for to this newest group of contributors — although as you will see, they come with such good stuff, to slip into scouting parlance, that they won’t require much coaching in that regard.

If you are reading this and are already a subscriber, thanks for standing beneath the BP flag; we hope to give you what you’ve come to expect from us and then some. If you’re just dropping by, then please, join us for what is the world’s longest-running super-informed, no-holds-barred conversation about baseball.

The more I think about it, the more certain I am that I didn’t pass that French course; I was too busy thinking about the .343/.402/.551 season Alan Trammell had had the year before, and Paul Molitor’s .353/.438/.566 of the same season. Still, I half-remember another saying: Plus les choses changent, les choses sont mieux (et le meilleur des vaches), which is to say that the more things change, the better things get (and the better the cows). You can’t argue with that, not with the new crew we have here, and you can’t fight City Hall. Fortunately, you can fight Citi Field, so we still have plenty to discuss. And remember, they’re not saying “moo,” they’re saying, “Make mine BP!”

Steven Goldman is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Click here to see Steven's other articles.
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Speaking of AJ Burnett - saw an interesting comparison of his career stats to those of Josh Beckett last night on MLB network ... right before Sean Casey elbow dropped Leiter ...Josh Beckett who seems synonomous with Ace/top of rotation pitcher had almost identical career stats (3.9 ERA, 110 wins or so - near 500 record) - with the enigma that is Burnett.

As an AL Central team's fan, I clicked on Brandon Warne's Twitter feed to subscribe only to see a bunch of revolting Twins logos. I'm worried the quality of his AL Central coverage will plummet once the regular season is over. Are you sure this is a good hire?

Of the many things BP did last year that impressed me, two stand out: the promises made after last year's PECOTA debacles to communicate much more transparently with your subscriber base; and last September's deep analysis of PECOTA, including promises to communicate much more transparently with your subscriber base. Given that many of us have keeper decisions coming up in the next few days (due early in the morning on Feb 7), it would be useful to know when we can expect to be able to consult PECOTA predictions for the coming year. If I need to make decisions based on partial ZIPS and my own hunches, that's okay -- but it would be helpful if BP could follow through on its promises to communicate transparently. To that end, "tick... tick... tick..." is funny, but not helpful. So: when should we expect PECOTA to be available?

What I would love to do is print up a series of T-shirts with the Prospectus Boxes from last year's/this year's annuals (designed by Jay Jaffe). Everyone looks at me a little cross-eyed when I bring that up, though.

This is overdue I must say. My renew is due today actually and I was really thinking that I would not renew, and I've been here since the beginning. I guess I will reconsider over the next couple days.

Let me get this straight, an organization that purports to pride itself on logic and rigorous analysis will now give us the BP Daily Broadside three times per week. Does BP now stand for Baseball Paradox, perchance?

FYI, the most common form of the French expression referenced is, without the proper accents inserted, Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, which translates to The more things change, the more they remain the same.

I see your mean bastard of a pony, and raise you a mean bastard of a Belgian stallion, which got out of the pasture at my father's place on Sunday monring. I helped my brothers chase him back into the barn, as did my 12-year-old daughter, who was actually frightened by a horse for the first time in her life, so we perched her on a tractor and let her watch the proceedings. But we only got him penned after one occasion where he was almost in, changed his mind at the doorway, and barreled straight towards me about thirty yards away. So I ... jumped out of the way. I scarpered, and by not closing my portion of the perimeter doomed us to another twenty minutes of chasing him back to the barn. I've felt completely inadequate ever since, even though the more fully evolved portion of my brain says it was the right decision.

"And back in Rice Lake, well they say if you need a couple of stiff drinks before you stand your ground in front of a charging horse, you're finished." -- Harry 'Breaker' Morant (slightly edited)

Breaker Morant's right--stand your ground. I had to run down said pony at 13 as he was kicked through two fences and a barn to attack a new-born colt, so I had to deal with a panicked hours-old foal, an angry 16-hand mare limping along, and one mad bastard with hooves looking to kill. I sorted it out by myself without bloodshed, got the pony restrained, noted the foal was going to become a hell of a jumper (as he indeed became), and made it to school by second period with a reasonable excuse for being late.

As someone who has been fairly critical of BP in the past couple of years, allow me to say that the content you guys are pouring out now as well as the slew of excellent writers you have brought on has me very very excited about BP's present and future. For someone who thought you guys were nearing your expiration date in relevance, I must say I am extremely impressed with the overhaul. Thank you for giving me good reason to place BP back at the top of my bookmark list.

Love hearing that. I was first exposed to BP through the annuals and that TONE was what struck me. Predict greatness for Jeremy Affeldt and Erubiel Durazo. Tell me Paul Wilson will be an All-Star. I don't care if you miss. It was based on something. Misguided though it may have been at times, it was the confidence of a group that was creating their own way. That tone has been muffled in recent years. Pilferage of some of your best writers was part of it, and PECOTA clearly took your voice at least for a couple years. But I'm glad to hear that things are changing and I hope it comes to pass.